A note to the dozens of NFL fans who might read this

Forgive us, but we enjoy watching a game of American football every now and then (yes, even after that ugly display in London). Last year, we got in the habit of watching the NFL's Sunday and Monday night games on Monday and Tuesday morning here in Shanghai while we answered emails, fed the dogs and did other important things (we watched on ESPN Asia via our Filipino satellite system). Right now, for example, we'd be watching Philadelphia play Dallas. Actually, we'd probably have turned it off by now because it is a blowout — but we won't tell you who is winning just in case you plan on watching it later. But, then there's the problem: Where and how would you watch it later? It seems ESPN Asia and Star Sports have stopped airing any and all NFL games this year (go ahead, search). Sunday night games are now shown on NBC in the US, so perhaps that explains part of this, but Monday Night Football is now aired on ESPN, so we have no idea why those games would no longer be shown on ESPN Asia. These games don't appear to be shown on replay during the week, as was the case in the past, either. The only American football available on ESPN/Star this year is Thursday night college football. Odd.

Does anyone out there know what's the cause of all this? And has anyone found any sort of NFL viewing solution? Solar Sports, another sports channel on the Filipino satellite, show live games in the middle of the morning, and we have heard CCTV is showing more games this year, but as we said before, our apartment didn't come with Chinese cable, and we haven't had it installed yet. We could probably watch via the internet, but we have a feeling our connection speed would make the experience an annoying one, and anyway, we'd rather have the game showing on TV in the background so we can use our computer for other things.

Is there another (better) satellite system we should get installed? Or are we left only to enjoy the NFL trivia questions that get shown on the Shanghai subway systems flat screen TVs (pictured)?

Read the complete post at http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/shanghaiist/~3/179872906/a_note_to_the_d.php